In general, the growth of digital multimedia content has skyrocketed as it has been fueled by the rapid expansion of broadband connectivity and increasing interest in online multimedia-rich applications. Numerous applications related to entertainment, e-commerce, digital photos, music download, and distance learning are now widely used by businesses and consumers. This growth is driving new forms of interaction with unstructured information in image, audio, video, and text formats. It is also compounding the need for more effective methods for searching, categorizing, organizing, and interacting with this information. Manual processing is expensive, time consuming, and inadequate; leading to incomplete and inconsistent results and poor performance. New technologies are clearly needed for creating new value by exploiting the growing archives of digital media assets and managing the high costs associated with cataloging digital media content.
For example, one such existing system is Synchrotext Version 1.0, which was developed by the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Synchrotext Version 1.0 is an annotated-media producer/player that synchronizes digital audio and video with scrolling transcriptions, translations and multimedia commentaries. Synchrotext version 1.0 application has two primary components, a publisher and a player, and was created using Macromedia Director MX 2004. The publisher is used to import media, transcription, and translation then manually synchronize and annotate the same for viewing in the player. The original intent of the current software was in the field of cultural protection, whereby Audio (songs)/Video (theatre, dance) etc. can be transcribed, translated, annotated, and manually synchronized for educational use, e.g., African ballads.
Synchrotext Version 1.0 application also provides an editor with a tool to combine recorded performances with transcriptions, translations, and commentaries by experts. Synchrotext Version 1.0 is a useful tool for presenting performances, analyzing them, storing information about them, and collaborating with others in their interpretation. It is perceived as useful in a variety of fields, including oral history, oral literature, visual anthropology, performance studies, film history, language instruction, and distance learning. In fact, the software is currently being used by an oral history museum in Brazil and a language research institute in Tanzania. In addition, Alexander Street Press, a compiler of online libraries for universities and agent for Smithsonian Global Sound, is developing libraries of Synchrotext works, including traditional oral narrative.
Diagrammatic Representation of Flow. FIG. 1 presents a process workflow 5 used in the Synchrotext application version 1.0 to synchronize digital audio and video with scrolling transcriptions, translations and multimedia commentaries. In FIG. 1, the basic steps that are part of the workflow of creating a Synchrotext work, along with the inputs for each step, are shown. To start the process, a user creates (10) a library for the synchronized work and enters a name/title 12 for the work. The user then requests that the system create (20) the work and enters a file name 22 of an existing file to be used, a name of an editor 24 who is creating the work, an author/performers name 26 associated with the existing file to be used, and an associated library file 28. The user may then compose (30) the start screen for the work by entering a title 32, specifying an image 34 to be displayed on the start screen, and enters credits information 36 that is also to be displayed on the start screen. The user next composes (40) an introduction screen for the work by entering introduction text 42 for the work that will be displayed on the introduction screen. The user next imports (50) media to be synchronized in the work. This media includes MP3 files 52, MP4 files 54, Quicktime files 56, and Real Media files 58, all of which may be placed on a local machine/computer and/or on the Internet.
In the next step in the process in FIG. 1, the user selects (60) a layout for the work by selecting audio only 62, low resolution (lo-res) video 64, high resolution (hi-res) video 66, or kiosk video 68. After this, the user creates (70) a transcript for the work in a selected language 72 and using a selected/provided transcription text 74. The user then creates (80) a translation for the work in another selected language 82 and using a selected/provided translation text 84. The user then synchronizes (90) the media with the transcription and the translation by pressing the space bar 92 to manually sync the media and transcription and translation. The syncing may be fine-tuned to 1/100 of a second 94. The user then creates (100) annotations for the work by assigning a 3-character code 102, a description 104, and a mediatype-text, link to audio/video files 106 to each annotation. The user may then preview (110) the work to determine the quality of the synchronization and other aspects of the work. If necessary, the user may edit by work by returning to one or more of the previous process steps. Ultimately, the user generally saves/stores the work in a digital storage media for future recall and use. Finally, after the work has been created and stored, the work may be published (120) for all to see and use.
Unfortunately, the program's present limited versatility and limitations prevent Synchrotext from being truly useful. These limitations include, but are not limited to, only being able to use a Rich text import format, not being able to use MusicXMl as a text import format, having only a limited number of supported media formats, not being able to sync many-to-many, and not being able to automatically synchronize the file.
System Requirements. The Synchrotext Version 1.0 is designed for execution on the following minimum system requirements. A PC-based system may include an Operating System (OS) Windows 2000, ME, XP or greater, 256 MB RAM or greater, a Pentium II processor operating at 500 mhz or greater, and a minimum of 500 MB disk space for application and media files. The software needed includes the following: a Macromedia Shockwave viewer; QuickTime 6.5 or greater (for use with QuickTime *.mov, *.mp3, *.mp4), and RealOne player (for use with *.rm). Likewise, a Macintosh-based Platform may include: System 10.1 or greater, 256 MB RAM or greater, a G4 or greater processor; and a minimum of 500 MB disk space for application and media files. The software needed includes the following Software: Macromedia Shockwave viewer, QuickTime 6.5 or greater (for use with QuickTime *.mov, *.mp3, *.mp4), and RealOne player (for use with *.rm).
Therefore, a new system that replaces and overcomes the existing deficiencies in Synchrotext Version 1.0 standalone application is needed for synchronizing digital multimedia files and streams with scrolling transcriptions, translations and multimedia commentaries over the Internet.